


Ocean's 14

by Mari_Knickerbocker



Category: Ocean's (Movies), Ocean's Eleven (2001), Ocean's Thirteen (2009), Ocean's Twelve (2004)
Genre: Canon Compliant, F/M, Hijinks & Shenanigans, Not Beta Read, Not Britpicked, Originally Posted on FanFiction.Net, Team as Family, Work In Progress
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2015-09-23
Updated: 2015-09-23
Packaged: 2018-04-23 01:08:31
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 10
Words: 17,274
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4857440
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Mari_Knickerbocker/pseuds/Mari_Knickerbocker
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>What does a native New Yorker new to Las Vegas have in common with Danny Ocean and his gang of, well, misfits? Why her profession of course! Although that shouldn't matter right now since she moved to the west coast to go straight of all things. Apparently crimes not something you can just quit when you feel like it - at least it isn't when you are a freaking legacy, like she asked to be one.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> I do not own Ocean’s 11, 12, or 13 though it would be pretty sweet if I did. Therefore, all the characters from the movies are not mine, what is mine is those characters and plot bunnies that you do not recognize. That being said, I am only sitting here and fooling around with the product of someone else’s genius.
> 
> Originally posted on FF.Net cross posting here hoping to jump start the creative juices again.

New York City, it was her playground and she knew it, hell, even the city knew it. She was the descendant of Manhattan royalty, a royalty that the city had forgotten it ever played host to in the past few decades. Yet in the city’s heyday her family’s name meant something, it was a hallmark of instant respect and people would have bent over backwards just to make sure she was kept happy. Although it would have been difficult to tell if there eagerness was due to the respect they felt for her family, or fear over what would happen if they did not comply. 

Unfortunately, for her, she had been born during the decline of her family’s rule of Manhattan or rather more appropriately rule of Hell’s Kitchen. Yet, that did not stop her from trying to reap the benefits. A child growing up in the questionable district known as Hell’s Kitchen could use any edge she had. Especially if said child had a mother who was indifferent half the time and stoned the rest of the time, as for her father, well he was not in the picture. The only thing he ever did for her was give her a connection to one of the most infamous mob bosses in the Irish mob, although she didn’t inherit his name the connection was still there and recognized. Anyone who was in with the Irish mob knew that she was Jimmy Coonan’s favorite niece. Moreover, they knew that even though Jimmy C had been behind bars for years now and was not getting out anytime soon, it was still wiser not to cross him.

Still she would have rather not use her uncle’s name to make life easy for her. Uncle Jimmy had agreed with her too when she told him the plan, back when she was only three and before he got pinched. She was not going to follow his footsteps, therefore joining the mob officially and racketeering was out. Instead, she turned herself into a decent thief, well just for as long as it took her to become reasonably well off. Therefore, now at the age of twenty-five she was attempting to make herself legit. Before she could do that, there was one more thing she had to take care of, her mother.

Adèle Renard was a Frenchwoman that had hoped to make it big as an American actress. That never really happened the way she thought it would, although the career Adèle had fallen into required all of her talent as an actress. See Adèle had arrived in New York during the late seventies, settling in Hell’s Kitchen because it has the cheapest rent in Manhattan. What Adèle had not known about her new home was that the Weasties, led by Jimmy Coonan, was running a rather profitable racket in the ‘Kitchen. And being new to both the city and the country Adèle had no job and therefore, no money to by protection with. The only thing she had going for her was the fact that she was young and her figure. In later years, she was known to claim that it was her lucky break the day Eddie Coonan came knocking on her door. Eddie had came looking for money and what he found was the closest thing he ever had to a sweetheart in the young Frenchwoman. As for Adèle, she got herself a protector. All Eddie ever demanded was that she give her favors to him and any other member of the mob freely in exchange for protection from the sometimes violent neighborhood. A situation that Adèle readily agreed to, as she saw it she only had too options, give it up willingly and thereby being able to name a few conditions or face the alternative; them taking it from her anyways.

In short, Eddie became something like her pimp but Adèle was never considered a whore, because Eddie would not stand for that. He proved that by whacking the first wise guy who dare refer to the lovely young Frenchwoman as a whore. She actually had it pretty good, Eddie set himself up as her sugar daddy and Adèle never had to work for anything. Whatever she wanted, Eddie got it for her. Oftentimes that included large amounts of narcotics, living closely with a mobster usually resulted in a few bad habits rubbing off. When they had met Eddie was old, but he still had a lot of life in him and eventually he proved that fact by getting Adèle pregnant. Resulting in a daughter and Eddie leaving one day without warning.

Jimmy had liked Adèle, and had disapproved of his brother’s response. He made it known that even though Eddie and Adèle had never been married, in fact there relationship was only business, that he considered Adèle and her daughter officially part of the family. In fact, it was soon evident to many that the notorious Jimmy C had a soft spot when it came to his little niece, and treated her as if she was his own daughter.

Well now, little Sophie Renard was all grown up and looking to move out of Hell’s Kitchen, and leave the Irish mob behind. Although she was proud of her family’s connection to it, she had realized long ago that if she was going to make her own way in the world without relying on the family’s influence she had to leave the neighborhood, especially if she would ever try to go legit. Therefore, with the payoff from the last job she would ever take as a thief weighing down her jacket she was preparing to take her leave of her childhood home.

With a rough shake of her head, she cleared her mind of all her woolgathering; she’d need her wits about her now. Mama will probably make a scene, that is if she’s still sober, she thought with resigned annoyance. She continued down the sidewalk, easily weaving in and out of the crowd and making her way slowly to her mother’s apartment building. If it was up to her she would have just ducked out of town without saying anything, but Adèle had already had enough people leave her unexpectedly that Sophie could not bear to do that to her own mother. Even though it certainly would have been easier on Sophie, well easy was not always right. 

By now she had entered the building as was had soon climbed the three flights of stairs to her mother’s apartment door. Sophie didn’t even bother to knock, she simply took the spare key she had swiped from the landlord a few months ago and let herself in. 

“Mama,” she called into the dimly lightened apartment. It was still early afternoon but every shade in the living room was down, and there were only one or two lamps on. Adèle liked the dim lighting; she claimed that it made her appear younger. 

“Sophie, is that you?” An aged woman’s alto called back.

“No Mama, it’s the cops.” Sophie replied rolling her eyes and heading down the hall towards the kitchen.

“Be nice child,” her mother scolded her, greeting Sophie at the kitchen doorway and giving her a hug. Sophie stared into her mother’s still vibrant green eyes and noticed with a touch of dismay that Adèle was indeed still sober. It was strange really, when she was a child Sophie would have given anything to see her mother’s eyes alert, but now she was so used to having a stoned mother she didn’t know how to handle a sober one. 

“What brings you around?” Adèle asked motioning for her daughter to sit down at the kitchen table. Obediently Sophie sat and then immediately emptied her left hand pocket.

“Here Mama, for you,” Sophie said placing five-thousand dollars in cash on the table. It was only half of what she had earned on her last job, but it was enough to help her mother out for a while at least. Sophie planed on sending her mother some money after she had gotten herself a real job, but in the meantime, that should hold Adèle over, bad habits and all. After all, there were still family members that took care of her drug needs.

“Sophie,” Adèle exclaimed looking at the pile of money, “where did you get that?”

“Never mind where Mama, just take it. I insist.” Sophie continued when her mother looked like she wanted to protest. 

“So you’re finally doing it my little dove, aren’t you?”

“Doing what Mama?”

“Don’t play innocent with me Sophie, that act ceased to work when you were five. You’re going to leave me, the neighborhood, and your father’s roughish family.” Adèle began, sounding determined and her voice raising half an octave. Sophie braced herself waiting for the storm of her mother’s somewhat legendary hysterics to break.

“Well it’s about damn time child, and here I thought you would wait until I was on my last leg.” Sophie stared at her mother completely flabbergasted, causing Adèle to smile at her daughter. “Now don’t look to stunned Sophie, I knew you were just itching to get out of here. Let’s face it child New York has become to familiar for you to want to stay. Curious as a cat you are Sophie, you always have been. Whenever you learn as much as you can about something, you go on to the next new mystery and tackle that. No wonder locked doors proved to be such a temptation for you!”

“Mama I….” It was unbelievable, truly it was. Sophie had spent her entire life believing her mother to be indifferent about her child, only to now after twenty-five years discover that her mother did in fact know her. Actually, Adèle knew her rather well, a fact that she proved with her next statement.

“I hope you’re not in too much of a hurry my dove. I’ve made your favorite dinner, hoping that you’ll take the time to spend one last meal with me.”

“Of course Mama.” Sophie replied, marveling at just how wrong she had been about her own mother. The rest of the evening only served to provide further evidence that Adèle had in fact paid attention to her daughter. For once in a very long time, Sophie actually enjoyed her mother’s company. 

When she got up to leave the waterworks she had expected all along finally began, although they were not the full-on hysterics she would have predicted. Adèle walked with Sophie to the door of the apartment, and stopped.

“Sophie, my dove, you should find yourself a man, someone who will make you happy.”

“Mama, I don’t need a man to be happy.” Sophie replied trying not to let her aggravation show. This was not the first time Adèle had pestered her daughter about finding someone, and it probably would not be the last. 

“I said the same thing when I was your age, my dove, but then I met your father. He was like a well aged wine when I met him, and a drink that I never wanted to set aside.” 

“Where is your well aged wine now Mama.” Sophie snapped and immediately regretted it, biting her lip, and cursing herself for an idiot. Adèle simply took it in stride.

“Not every vintage lasts forever my dove.” She kissed Sophie on the cheek then. “Go on now Sophie, go and find what it is you’re meant to do. Promise me this though, that whatever you do, you will do it with all of your heart and in style.”

“Mama,” was all Sophie could say, giving her mother one last hug and a kiss on the cheek. She turned then opening the door and already her mind was on trying to catch the next train out of Manhattan. 

“Oh and Sophie, my dove,” Adèle called from the doorway.

“Mama, I do not need a man!” Sophie yelled over her shoulder. The sound of her mother’s delighted laughter followed her down the stairwell. With a surprised smile, Sophie Renard realized that despite her unconventional childhood and unconventional relationship with her mother, she actually loved the woman.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> The Irish mob known as the Weasties actually does exist, and was lead by Jimmy Coonan from 1973 until 1986 when he was finally arrested. I got all my information about Coonan and the Weasties from various sources one being Wikipedia and the other being Answers.com. Therefore, since they really exist I thought it was only fair to share where my information was coming from. I guess you could consider this chapter of this particular fanfic to be something like historical fiction. 
> 
> As of right now, I do not know if I’m going to do anything more involving Coonan and the Weasties, but just in case if you’re interested you can check my sources. Moreover, if they change I’ll be sure to let you know. I realize that this is rather tedious but I felt it best to get it out of the way, so thanks for your patience and I hope you enjoyed what I’ve written so far!!


	2. Chapter 2

Las Vegas and New York there could not be two cities so completely different yet the same, even if some smart ass planned it. Sometimes, Sophie wondered if someone did, just for shits and giggles. Both cities had a thriving nightlife the only difference was that New York was discrete about its clubs where as Vegas flaunted its casinos and flashing neon lights. Both cities had roots going back to the mob, although Vegas’s connection to the mob was acknowledged with a certain amount of pride. Really, the similarities between the two were staggering. A fact that helped Sophie to settle in rather quickly, the money from her last job paying for a decent apartment and giving her time to go on a job hunt, like every other normal person. However, she was just abnormal enough to make sure that everything she did in Vegas was under an assumed name, legit or not she wasn’t about to announce who she really was by using her birth name. 

She had found herself a job, an actually legit job, working as a waitress at one of the newly opened casinos on the strip. An obscene looking building that was something like a cross between the Eiffel Tower, a unicorn’s horn, and a penis and was called The Bank. An obvious ode to its owner’s ego just like the casino’s design was a disgustingly obvious ode to Willy Bank’s personal assets, or lack there of. How she had gotten past the scrutiny of the Nazi like Ms. Sponder, was beyond Sophie’s understanding. She could only call it luck, for apparently, she fit the mold of what they were looking for and Sponder was getting desperate enough to hire just anyone.

When Sophie had shown up for her interview, it was only a week or so before the casino’s grand opening and she got the feeling that Sponder was not coping well with the stress. After she had been working there for a few days she figured out why. Bank was worse than Sponder, if that was even possible, and all their high rolling players’ had suddenly up and left. Yet, that was not her problem.

Nope, Sophie’s problem was trying to get use to the annoying sound of the slot machines chiming constantly. More importantly, Sophie’s problem was trying to stop her fingers from itching at the sight of all those easy marks walking around her half drunk on booze and luck. She could have picked their pockets with ease, but Sophie was serious about following the straight and narrow this time around and was not about to let herself backslide. At least that is what she had to keep on telling herself as the temptation became almost more than she could bear. Sophie was starting to think that perhaps relocating to Vegas had been a bad idea. 

As it was working the slot machines on opening night she was in the perfect position to notice a stunningly handsome blond sit down to play. Although his looks caught her attention at first, what kept it was the way he was putting his coins into the machine. There was a pattern to it, one that she would have missed if she had not scanning the crowd and sizing up possible marks, something that had become an involuntarily habit. Sophie watched with narrowed eyes as the handsome stranger hesitated before inserting his last coin. 

Then to her surprise he began to casually look around, she was watching his face now and saw how his eyes light up slightly when he spotted the woman in blue coming down the stairs. Sophie knew that look, she had seen it in many con artists when they spotted a juice target, hell she had worn it a time or too herself. To her further amazement the man left his machine with the coin casually covering the slot, he left just in time for the woman in blue to sit down and take the waiting coin, play it and win big. Sophie did not know what really happened but she knew a set up when she saw one and that was defiantly a set up.

Shrugging to herself and marveling over the masterful way the man had pulled that trick, Sophie started towards the next potential customer. 

“Did you learn anything kid?” A smooth cultured voice asked her almost directly in her ear. Sophie quickly squashed the urge to jump out of her skin and just as quickly turned around to find herself face to face with the blonde from the slot machine. He smiled at her, a slow self-assured smile that was really a smirk; an expression that she found both intriguing and annoying. She did not bother to respond to him; instead, she turned rather pertly on her heel and sauntered off in the direction of the bar. She was going to con the bartender into giving her a shot of whiskey; she figured she had earned one. _Why do the damned things have to chime,_ she thought rather crossly about the slot machines.

**_****~~~~~****_ **

Rusty chuckled to himself as he watched the waitress strut her stuff. He had enjoyed startling her, but if he was honest, and Rusty Ryan hardly ever was; he would have to admit that she startled him. He had known that all the fellas in on the heist would have been watching him, a fact that did not bother him at all. What had bothered him was the realization that someone else not part of the team had spotted him. That could only mean one three options. Option A: Rusty was getting sloppy. Option B: she was just that good. Or, Option C: life with Isabel was making him complacent, a.k.a. sloppy. Regardless what possible explanation it was they all amounted to the same thing, Rusty was getting sloppy. Although, it could have been that she was just that good. Rusty had seen the admiration in her eyes at his successfully played con. Yet, that was neither here not there, after all he still had a job to finish.

By the end of the night, he had almost completely forgotten about the waitress. Almost, something about her being able to spot him was still bothering him. He did not what to think that she could be good enough to spot him and the idea that he, Rusty Ryan, was getting sloppy was ridiculous not to mention something he never wanted to admit or contemplate. As always, Danny seemed to notice what Rusty was thinking.

“It was a good night.” Danny said when the fire works display died down and there was only him, Rusty, Saul, Linus, and Bobby Caldwell (surprisingly) left at Ruben’s.

“It was a great night for revenge,” Ruben said around his customary cigar. They all looked to Rusty for his opinion; he said nothing.

“Don’t you agree Rusty?” Linus asked when the silence stretched on.

“Of course he does,” Danny, answered for his friend. “It’s just he was spotted.”

“What? When?”

“During the Susan B. Anthony,” Danny supplied in answer to Linus’s questions. Bobby, Saul, and Ruben said nothing they just stood there watching.

“She was a waitress.” Rusty offered.

“Do you think she will – ”

“Nope.”

“How can you be – ”

“Can’t.”

“Then we’d better – ”

“Yep.” And that settled the matter, although judging by Linus’s blank look the kid had once again not followed his and Danny’s train of thought. Rusty could not help but smile a little at that. A quick glance at the kid’s father, Saul, and Ruben told him that they found Linus’s inability to keep up just as amusing.

“All right who’s going?” Danny asked. “I can’t Bank will –”

“That’s true, I could –”

“That might scare her off though.” Danny concluded, to which Rusty’s only response was a grunt. He was right; it might scare her off if Rusty went back to the casino looking for her. Especially after the little trick he played nearly scaring her out of her skin. 

“I’ll go,” Bobby volunteered, “Linus can’t Sponder would recognize him, Saul can’t go because Bank will recognize him, and Ruben can’t because Bank will feel the need to detain him and make threats. So I’ll go.”

“Wait, they want to pick up this waitress just to make sure she doesn’t go to the cops?” Rusty heard Linus ask Saul in a not to discrete whisper. “Why do I keep missing these things?” Rusty, Danny, and Bobby exchanged a look, which said one thing – he’ll learn.

“What will be your reason?” Ruben asked, his voice casual the question genuine.

“I’ll just say that while I was pursuing my notes before writing a report on the instances that had occurred earlier, I found a common thread suggesting a connection and a third party. I’ll then ask to interview all of the casino’s employees that were working the floor while Livingston was rigging machines and Linus here was trying to steal the diamonds. Now give me the girl’s description Rusty so I know which one I’m supposed to be picking up.”

“Alright, I’d guess her to be about 5ft 4inches tall, with short really curly jet black hair, pale skin, hazel eyes and built like a dancer. If I had to guess at her ethnic background I’d say European for sure.” Rusty answered quickly enough. “Oh and I caught her name, its Sara.”

“Are you sure you didn’t want her to spot you?” Saul asked sarcastically, and Linus snickered.

“Positive, dealing with one European woman is enough for me right now. Despite what you might have heard, or think.” Rusty replied his face deadpan. Bobby did not even bother to stick around long enough to hear what else was said. He had what he needed.


	3. Chapter 3

For the second time that night, Bobby Caldwell entered The Bank casino wondering once again at the extent of Willy Bank’s ego. Linus and his friends had truly delivered a huge blow to the man’s system stealing those diamonds. A blow that was obvious to anyone with eyes to see it, the heist had only been completed less than an hour and a half ago and already Bobby could see the tell-tail signs of an almost defeated man in Bank’s face when he came to greet him. _Almost defeated, I’ll have to remind Danny of that,_ Bobby thought to himself, he would tell his son but Linus would only assume that Bobby was being over protective. Or that he did not have enough faith in his son’s skill.

“Agent Caldwell, what brings you back tonight?” Bank asked with a false politeness, the man was good at faking it but Bobby was better. 

“I was going over my reports of tonight’s incidents and there seems to be a common element to both of them.”

“Incidents?” Bank interrupted; there was a somewhat sarcastic edge to his voice. Apparently, he felt that ‘incidents’ did not begin to cover what had happened.

“Yes incidents,” Bobby repeated, “since there seems to be this connection between the two I would like to interview every member of your staff who was working the floor tonight.”

“That could take some time.”

“I’m willing to take the time and you should be too.” He said, with a look that practically shouted that he would not be persuaded otherwise. Bank nodded his agreement then barked some sharp orders to the now almost completely recovered Sponder. Caldwell avoided her gaze; he felt he had embarrassed her enough for one evening. Besides, every time he looked at her he would only be reminded of walking in on her pulling down his son’s pants and those pink boxers he was wearing. 

He set up office at one of the blackjack tables and watched as every waitress, dealer and pit boss was round up for him to interview. He scanned the crowd of casino employees looking for the girl Rusty had described. He spotted her soon enough then went about questioning at least a good dozen people before pulling her over to his ‘office’. He sat her down at the table then decided to take a chance. He only needed her to give him any excuse to ‘arrest’ her and figuring that since she was able to spot Rusty deliberately set up a Susan B. Anthony then anything he did right now would spook her. Therefore, he leaned forward across the felt tabletop and stared her down before saying and an annoyingly calm voice:

“I know who you are _Sara Muller_ ,” he put a little emphasis on her name, making it sound like he did not believe it to be her real name. She stiffened at that, her eyes widening and going blank with momentary panic. _Bingo._ In a jiff, he handcuffed her and was escorting her out of the casino and back to his car. He moved so fast that Bank only just caught up with him after he had slammed the car door shut. She sat placidly in the back seat of the sedan and Bobby wanted to be done with the real business ASAP, after all the night wasn’t getting any younger and he had a wife that he really wanted to go home to. 

“This should be the end of it Mr. Bank. Thank you for your cooperation.” He then briskly walked around the front of the car and got into the drivers seat. He pealed out of there and started driving down the strip. He contemplated bringing her back to Ruben’s, but he was not sure if he wanted to expose her to Rusty again. 

Despite the fact, he was in a committed relationship with that Interpol agent Lahiri; Rusty still had quite the reputation of being a ladies man. He would turn on the charm just to make sure he still had the knack for it. Then before she knew what was going on, Rusty would have charmed the pants off her, quite literally. The shocked expression she had worn back in the casino had touched him, and Bobby felt rather protective of her for some reason. Besides he did not think it right to deliberately put the girl in Rusty’s reach. He may have been a thief but he still had his ethics. _Well I suppose I could call and see if the scoundrel’s are still hanging around,_ he thought to himself with some resignation. He fished out his cell phone and dialed Ruben’s cell.

_“Hello.”_ The old casino owner answered, his voice sounding muffled probably from that cigar he insisted on always having hanging out of his mouth.

“Hey, it’s Caldwell.”

_“You got the girl.”_

“Yeah.”

_“Well bring her on back to my place, Danny and them have left already. It’s just me and Saul here.”_ That was exactly what he had been hoping to hear.

“Alright, we’ll be there shortly.” With that, Bobby hung up the phone.

“You mean you’ll be there shortly,” a soft feminine voice said, sounding closer to him then someone who was suppose to be sitting in the backseat would. “You can let me out anywhere along the strip.” Incredulously Bobby turned his head to find the girl who he distinctly remembered putting in the backseat calmly sitting in the passenger’s seat.

“Oh these are yours by the way.” She continued placing the unlocked handcuffs on the dash. The elder Caldwell stared at the girl for a moment longer then returned his attention to the road. _Well I will be damned,_ was his bemused thought everything falling into place. It had been a long time since anyone had been able to successfully con Bobby Caldwell and this girl had managed to do just that.

“Back in the casino there…” Bobby said leaving the rest of his question opened ended.

“I figured since I spotted that guy pulling off that con, someone would come around with threats about how it would be most beneficial to my health if I kept what I saw to myself and didn’t mention it to any authorities. I just didn’t expect the person to be posing as one of the authorities.” She explained simply, and it made sense, it made perfect sense.

“Sara Muller isn’t your real name.” Bobby accused her. 

“Are you really an agent?” She countered.

“Actually, yes I am.” He took the opportunity to glance at her. The girl’s expression was contemplative and she was chewing on her bottom lip a little, rolling that one around in her mind. Bobby could almost see the wheels in her head turning.

“Humph,” she finally conceded, “it’s a good cover.” Bobby smiled to himself; he had heard in her voice what she would never admit. He knew it was an amazing cover, every thief he had ever met knew it was the best cover known to man.

“Are you going to let me out now?” She finally asked after a few moments of silence.

“Nope,” was his answer. At that, her annoyance was practically tangible. The road the rest of the way to Ruben’s home in silence, Bobby amused and the girl sulking.

**_****~~~~~****_ **

The con man on a power trip finally pulled into the driveway of what she thought was a most ridiculous looking house. One thing was for certain, Sophie could not stand the architectural tastes of Vegas. Give her a good old fashion Victorian style building or something that was part of the gothic revival instead of this flashy mix’n’match shit of Vegas. She stared at the house in some disgust, not noticing when the so-called Agent Caldwell cut the car’s engine. In fact, she had not noticed that they were parked until he came around and opened the passenger’s side door for her.

“Be nice now,” he said after one glimpse at her face. “This is a friend’s house.” _A friend of yours maybe, but sure as hell no friend of mine,_ she thought with some scorn. He chuckled at her expression then grabbed her arm just above the elbow, making sure that there was not any opportunity for her to make a run for it.

He fog marched her to the front door where they were greeted by a butler, who then escorted them into a somewhat demurely furbished living room. Seated in two of the plush looking chairs was a pair of elderly men, one certainly looked younger than the other, well at least his hair wasn’t completely gray and he wasn’t going bald either. 

“Ruben Tishkoff,” the man she was coming to think of as the driver, said gesturing to the younger of the two waiting. The one who was steadily puffing away at a cigar, “and Saul Bloom meet…”

“Sophie Renard.” She supplied.

“Right and I am Bobby Caldwell, so now we’re all properly introduced.” She turned to stare at the man who brought her there, her eyes widening in genuine surprise.

“You’re Bobby Caldwell, _the_ Bobby Caldwell from Chicago?” Sophie asked sounded somewhat star-struck. At that, the balding gentleman, Saul, began to laugh.

“I take it she didn’t know who you were.” He said after getting control of his chuckles.

“That’s right Saul, and she sassed me the entire way over here.” Now all three men were laughing and Sophie did not know if she should join them or be angry over at the fact that she had been made into a punch line. 

“Well Ms Renard, where do you hail from?” Tishkoff asked removing the cigar from his mouth for the first time since Sophie had been led into the room. By now, Caldwell had seated himself on the nearby couch and Sophie was left standing.

“Manhattan.” 

“Now, I know all of the thieves and con artists possessing any talent that operate in Manhattan, and I’m not familiar with your name.” Caldwell said his eyes boring into her.

“I pretty much worked locally, only pulling off a few major heists and usually when I was contracted to do so with a team, though occasionally I’ve done a few on my own.”

“What’s one of these major heists you’ve been involved in?” Bloom asked, and Sophie gathered that they were trying to judge her expertise before getting down to the nitty gritty. 

“Did you hear about what happened at the Met recently?” She asked with an air of innocence about her. Their reactions where exactly what she had expected, Caldwell whistled in admiration, Tishkoff stared at her with growing respect in her eyes. Whereas Bloom, somewhat to her surprise, got up form his chair, came over to her then took her hand and kissed it.

“You work with a team on that.” Caldwell prompted.

“Yeah,” she answered staring at Bloom as he went back to his chair, “but it was my idea, and my money that financed most of it. I went in with a team then while they were busy making their exists I took my time to acquire a few extra items that were not part of the original plan.”

“Where are those items now?”

“Wouldn’t you like to know,” she responded with some cheek, causing the other two to start chuckling again. 

“She’s good Bobby,” Bloom said nodding in her direction, “no wonder she was able to spot what Rusty was doing.” Caldwell only grunted in response

“How did you spot him by the way?” Bloom asked addressing her.

“Itchy fingers, I had itchy fingers around all those people. So I was just scanning the crowd for potential marks, as a kind of mental exercise and I spotted Blondie there setting up that scam. I wouldn’t have noticed him if I hadn’t been looking.” She admitted. All three men grunted at that, they understood the torture of itchy fingers. 

“Why did you come to Vegas?”

“To go legit of all things,” she replied with a cynical smile, “something I never would have been able to do back home.”

“Humph,” that was Tishkoff, busily puffing away at his cigar. “There’s something about you that’s nagging at me.” He announced taking the cigar out of his mouth and staring crossly at it. Then he looked back up at her and seemed to do a double take. “Wait a minute Sophie Renard, little Sophie, Adèle’s daughter?” She nodded not liking where this was going.

“You know her Ruben?” Caldwell asked.

“I sure do, and you two should to. Well at least know of her. That’s Jimmy Coonan’s niece there, all grown up.” The all turned to stare at her and all she could do was shrug at them.

“How do you know that? You never had any dealings with the Irish mob.” Bloom demanded.

“Saul, I ran casino’s of course I had some connections with the mob, all kinds of mobs as it turns out. Hell, opening a casino makes you an honorary member of the mob.”

“Well I can’t believe I didn’t see that coming.” That was Caldwell, regarding her with respect. “You’re good kid, and I could use you. What do you say?”

“No dice,” was her answer, “I’m trying to go legit here.” Caldwell could only shake his head in disbelief at Sophie’s response. He then looked down at his watch noticing the time.

“Ah, horseshit. I gotta go or Molly’s going to skin me alive. I told her I would be home hours ago, we have a frame job on the boil and she’ll never forgive me if I screw this up.” With that, he stood and came over to shake Sophie’s hand.

“It was a pleasure arresting you tonight Sophie, I hope to see you again sometime.” He paused then before adding, “If you ever feel the need to do a job again let me know, I’m sure we can work something out.” With a final nod towards Ruben and Saul, he left.

“Sit down Sophie,” Tishkoff told her, “from now on feel free to call us Ruben and Saul, I have the feeling that we’re going to become buddies.” She flashed the man a genuine smile before taking a seat on the now vacated couch, she had the feeling that Ruben was on to something.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Now I know that Linus’s mom’s name is never mention specifically but I figure that since his dad used his last name as part of his cover then why shouldn’t his mom use her first name as part of hers? Besides Bobby and Molly Caldwell has a very nice ring to it.


	4. Chapter 4

It had been three years since Sophie worked at the Bank casino, in fact three years since she worked anywhere. She had quite her job at the Bank, although her say in the matter had been taken out of her hands the night Bobby Caldwell had “arrested” her. Then Ruben had pitched a fit over the idea of her working anywhere else in Vegas if it was not for him. The problem with that was at the time Ruben was not running any hotels and Sophie had in formed him, half jokingly half seriously, that she was not going to be his French maid. Of course, the other option was that she take on a couple of con jobs for him, but she really did not want to do that. Therefore, since she would not accept charity and stay with Ruben; Sophie had slowly started to auction off the paintings she had stolen from the Met. She sold them back to, of all places, the Met. She may be a thief but she did have her own sense of poetic justice. Out of the original seven she had stolen for herself, Sophie still had four left and the prices she had sold the others back for was more than enough to cover her living expenses. Plus under the guidance of Ruben, she invested a good chuck of her money in the stock market. Therefore, she was, relatively speaking, set for life. Now if she could only find a way to keep the boredom she was plagued with from overwhelming her. She still had to adjust to living like any other Joe Schmo; it was proving harder than she had originally thought it would.

All of this was running through her mind as she made her way to Ruben’s house. Ruben had been right, after being introduced to each other by Bobby the three of them Ruben, Saul, and Sophie had become friends. Although Saul had soon returned to his hometown, he still called Sophie occasionally just to shoot the breeze. Over the years, Sophie had begun to see Saul as a grandfatherly figure, something she had never had in her life, and she even gave him the nickname Pops. He had been grouchy about that at first but Sophie could tell he was pleased by it.

She and Ruben kept in touch by having dinner with each other once a month. From Ruben and Saul, Sophie learned quite a bit about the tricks of the trade. She also knew a lot more about the blonde who had been the catalyst for Sophie meeting the aging con men. Although she knew more about him, Sophie was certain that she did not want to meet the man again. He seemed too arrogant for her tastes, not that she could blame him. Between him and his partner, Ocean, no safe had a chance. That kind of skill required a certain amount of arrogance, but the man, Ryan, had it in abundance. 

The taxi let her out on the street in front of Ruben’s house and Sophie paid the man before making the short hike to the front door. Although she could drive and hand enough money to afford a car Sophie never got herself one, back in Manhattan it was more of a liability to own a car then to just walk or use public transportation. Sophie had gotten used to relying on public transportation and besides that, she never really liked driving.

Sophie was greeted at the door by the butler who then led her into the very same living room where she first met Ruben. The sound of someone talking angrily in the other room preceded Ruben by a good two minutes. He entered the room looking annoyed and before greeting Sophie he went to the bar and poured himself a scotch.

“I can’t believe it!” Ruben exclaimed slamming down the now empty glass and pouring himself another one.

“Can’t believe what?” Sophie asked joining him at the bar and getting herself a glass. Ruben poured some of the amber liquid out for her before talking again.

“ _Toulour,_ ” Ruben said pronouncing the name like it was some vile curse. “He wants to start another turf war for shits sake. You would think that after the whole egg thing in Rome and then the crap over the diamonds the man would have had enough. All of this over his blasted ego.”

“You men and your egos.” Sophie muttered just loud enough for Ruben to hear her.

“I resent that.”

“I rather thought you would.” He bristled then let it pass. 

“Well now I have to catch the first flight out of here to,” he paused, “well I’m not sure where.”

“How can you not be sure where?” He gave her a shrug that said he knew exactly where he was going he just didn’t want to tell her. Ruben was only trying to make her curious, he thought that if he piqued her curiosity enough he could get her to take a job. _Fat chance Mr. Honorary-Member-of-the-Mob,_ Sophie thought.

“What’s the contest over this time?” She asked instead, ignoring Ruben’s attempt at being mysterious, to his obvious disappointment.

“Toulour’s new mantra seems to be that anything Danny has he can take, like that French archeologist, Bullocks…no wait... Belloq does to Harrison Ford’s character in that movie. What’s its name, oh never mind! Indiana Jones and the Lost Ark or something like that. Damn French” – 

“Spit it out Ruben.” Sophie snapped impatiently, rolling her eyes at the man’s rambling.

“He’s taken Tess.”

“What! That’s not stealing that’s kidnapping.” Sophie was ticked now, she may have never met Tess Ocean but she had heard a lot about her from Ruben. Actually since Ruben’s favorite form of entertainment was trotting out stories about Rusty and Danny – some eventually involving Tess – Sophie felt like they were practically sisters. 

“He’s crossed the line,” she gritted between clenched teeth.

“He’s crossed the line,” Ruben repeated. “Oh, I didn’t tell you the worst of it.”

“What’s the worst of it?” Sophie asked with some trepidation. 

“Tess is pregnant.”

**_****~~~~~****_ **

“He’s crossed the line.” Danny announced once almost everyone was gathered in the warehouse, the only one missing was Ruben, and Saul had reassured him that the aging hotel owner was on his way. Everyone nodded in agreement with Danny at that their faces grim.

Amazing said something in Cantonese. 

“Yen’s right,” Livingston said, “this is like one of those bad plot twists from a fifties sleuth movie. When one mobster kidnaps another mobster’s girl just outta spite, to appease his ego.”

“No self respecting thief worth his salt would stoop to such levels.” Basher said sounding thoroughly disgusted.

“Its just trashy.” That was Virgil.

“Its low-class that’s what it is.” Turk said.

“I know that’s what I said.” 

“No you said it was trashy, I said it was low-class there’s a difference.”

“How can there be a difference they mean the same thing!”

“Its just wrong,” Linus said interrupting the Malloy’s growing argument. 

“Like morally,” Frank added. 

So far, both Rusty and Saul had remained silent and everyone else seemed to be waiting for them to say something. No one had yet asked Danny how he was holding up, no one seemed to want to be the one to ask. Everyone seemed to be waiting for either Saul or Rusty to ask that particular question. Therefore, everyone fell into a restless silence. In any other circumstance, Danny would have found their aversion to that particular question entertaining. As it was he found their squirming rather entertaining, Rusty was not going to ask because Rusty already knew, and Saul would not because Saul could guess. The truth was Danny was barely holding up. He wanted Toulour’s head on a plate and he wanted to be the one to cut it off. He hoped for Toulour’s sake that Tess and their child was not harmed, otherwise…well things would get messy. Danny had more than enough imagination to ensure that Toulour’s exit from the world would be neither swift nor short.

“Livingston is on to something,” Rusty finally ventured after the silence had stretched on for an almost unbearable amount of time. Danny perked up out of his raged in filled daydream of torturing the so-called Night Fox. He stared at Rusty for a moment before what the detail man was saying dawned on him.

“You think?”

“Well he violated rule number one” – 

“So what are rules two through four, I see your point.” At that everyone caught on to what they were discussing, even Linus. 

“Is Isabel safe?” Saul asked looking at Rusty pointedly.

“She still has her job at Interpol,” was his casual response, “taking her would cause too much of a stir. No offense Danny.”

“None taken.” Truly, there was not any; Rusty did have a point after all. “What we need now is someone who understands the inner workings of the mob, any mob.”

“I know someone,” it was the first thing Saul had said since the beginning of this meeting and it surprised everyone.

“Oh really, who?” Frank demanded.

“You’ll see Ruben’s bringing her along.”

“Her?” Danny asked, to which Saul merely nodded in reply.

“Yes her, and here she is.” Ruben’s voice boomed out behind him.


	5. Chapter 5

Sophie had no idea how she had gotten herself into this. _How could I let Ruben talk me into tagging along?_ She asked herself after becoming the center of attention for eleven pairs of eyes. She recognized Rusty as being the blonde from the slot machine four years ago, and Ocean was not too hard to spot. He was the one with eyes slowly going bloodshot from excessive worry. As for the rest, well, she only really knew Saul. Although she could probable guess everyone else’s identity, Ruben’s stories often came complete with detail descriptions of everyone involved. 

Yen was not too hard for her to spot, he was the only Asian in the entire group, and Sophie could pick out the Malloy twin’s from Ruben’s description of them. As for the rest, well she knew their names but she could not quite place them…yet. 

“Saul, not to be insulting man,” the black man standing to her right said in a distinct English accent. “But we need an actual bloke who works in the mob not his girlfriend.” He finished with barely concealed contempt.

Sophie narrowed her eyes in annoyance at the Englishman. _Basher,_ her memory supplied the name. She could not really blame him for his immediate dismissal of her. After all her petite stature and baby doll looks tended to make people underestimate her, which was good for her but bad for them.

“You want someone with knowledge of the mob; you don’t get anyone more knowledgeable than her. The next best thing would a mob boss himself.” Saul reassured the group. Someone scoffed at that, causing Saul to turn around and glare at a young man that Sophie would place around her own age.

“Surely my dad knows more than her, or knows someone else that we could use.” The youth said in response to Saul’s look.

“Trust me kid, she knows things Bobby never even heard of before. Like the location of a lot of those ‘dead’ mobsters and quite a few professional thieves.” _So that’s Bobby’s boy,_ was Sophie’s thought staring at the kid.

“I still get a Birthday card and a Christmas gift from them every year.” Sophie said amusement coloring her voice. They were all watching her, still trying to figure her out. She caught Saul’s gaze and could see his amusement. Ruben did not bother to hide his, he merely chuckled at the rests expressions. 

“Gent’s this here is Sophie Renard,” Ruben explained, “Jimmy Coonan’s niece. That’s how she knows so much; she grew up in Hell’s Kitchen the darling of the Irish mob.”

“I wouldn’t quite say the darling of the Irish mob Ruben; the Chicago and Boston syndicates only tolerated my Uncle, and that was on a good day.” Sophie felt the need to clarify.

“So that’s why you were able to spot my con in Vegas.” Rusty piped up. “You grew up around it.”

“Yes and no,” was Sophie’s response. “I grew up around racketeering, to pull that off successfully you had to be a pretty good con-artiest.”

“So you’re the girl that spotted Rusty setting up the Susan B. Anthony during the Bank job.” Ocean stated coming over and shaking Sophie’s hand. “Welcome to the team,” and that seemed to settle the matter.

**_****~~~~~****_ **

Linus wondered if Danny’s shock over having Tess stolen was turning his brain to mush. He could not see what use the girl could be, niece of a former mob boss or not. He never heard of a Sophie Renard before, and he grew up surrounded by criminals. He was generally on quite intimate terms with his fellow offspring of major con artists and say what you want about the mob, but they were nothing more than a group of armed cons. 

It was with great misgivings that he joined the rest of the gang in welcoming her. What’s more, he was glad to note that Basher, Frank, and the Malloy’s seemed to share his misgivings. _She still has to prove herself, just as I did,_ Linus thought to himself remembering how hard he had worked to get Danny and Rusty to really trust him during the Benedict job. Although if he was going to be honesty – which he was not, at least not this time – he was only proving how good he was to himself. Rusty and Danny already knew the value of Linus’s skills, if they did not they would not have offered him the job in the first place.

“No offence, miss,” Virgil said, “but I just got to know. What is it that you can offer that isn’t already supplied by someone else?”

“Other than my knowledge of the mob and racketeering, not much, I’m just a petty thief like the rest of you,” she replied with false modesty.

“Wait just a minute gel,” Basher interrupted, “we’re not petty thieves we’re proper villains.” Everyone nodded their assent at that.

“She’s being modest Basher,” Saul informed him. “Remember the Met job a few years back, well she’s the one responsible for that.”

“Yeah, and I’m still living off of the pay off.”

“What how can that be?” Linus asked curious despite himself. “Most of the paintings that were stolen have been returned to the museum.”

Sophie shrugged at him before saying; “That’s because I sold very authentic replicas of the paintings back to the Met. I have the originals locked up in a safe just in case I decided to sell those too.”

“Well, now that’s ballsy.” Basher admitted with a hint of approval in his voice.

“How did you get the replicas past the curator? As I understand it, he spends hours determining the authenticity of each item before he makes a purchase.” Danny asked.

“Simple, he owes me. Plus he has something like a schoolyard crush on me, that and a couple million fee for making the replicas in the first place pretty much guarantees that he’ll buy them.”

“Wait, the guy you’re swindling is helping you swindle him in the first place?” Linus asked complete confused by it all.

“That’s right; it’s what Jimmy C use to call a nice racket.” Was her answer, Linus could only stare at her in response. He had the sinking feeling that this Sophie Renard had just proved her worth.


	6. Chapter 6

They had decided that the first thing, in fact the wisest thing, for the so-called Night Fox to do was smuggle Tess out of the country. Danny Ocean was just too well connected and well liked in the States for Toulour to remain on this side of the Atlantic. It was just too much of a risk for him, even if he had not taken Tess. He would have been regarded with suspicion as some uppity European taking jobs from a great American con artist and his crew. There was something to be said about national pride, especially among the countries crime syndicate. 

Therefore, with that in mind they headed towards the airport catching a flight to Amsterdam. Rusty figured it was a good place to start, Isabel still lived there, and she could give them access to any information Interpol might have on Toulour’s movements that past six months. Rusty wanted to check on what the man had been up to before he decided to take Tess. He thought that would give the crew an idea about where Toulour might have taken her.

When they were all waiting to board the plane, Danny remembered that earlier they had failed to properly introduce Sophie to everyone. They spent the time waiting to board the plane introducing her to each member of the original crew. Sophie felt relived to finally be able to attach a face to the names she had heard Ruben declare repeatedly with fatherly pride. When Danny introduced her to Linus, she could not pass by the opportunity to make a clever remark. 

“Linus? As in the Peanut’s character?” She asked schooling her face into an expression of polite curiosity. He nodded a cautious look in his eyes and a small worry line on his forehead. 

Sophie looked him up and down for a few moments, letting him become even more self conscious and nervous before deadpanning; “So, where’s the blue security blanket?”

Luckily, for Linus the plane was now being boarded, so he had the option to walk away and he did just that. He stalked off towards the gate, trying to ignore his flaming cheeks as well as the howls of laughter from everyone else.

For a moment, Sophie regretted what she had said. She was nervous about working with the infamous Ocean’s 11 and it was not fair of her to take her nerves out on Linus. Then again, after watching his stubborn form flee from her, Sophie got over it rather quickly. She had the feeling that she would greatly enjoy teasing the young man. She grinned then at the thought of making him squirmed. It was an almost predatory grin and if Sophie had seen it on any other young woman’s face; she would have known what it meant immediately. Luckily, for her, there were no mirrors around and those who noticed it were not about to point it out to her.

Her grin was not lost on Ruben who took the opportunity to discreetly elbow Saul. Nor was it lost on Rusty and Danny, who merely shared a look of ironic amusement.

“Figures,” was all Danny said.

“Should we..?” Rusty asked with a raised eyebrow, nodding towards the plane.

“Might as well.”

**_****~~~~~****_ **

Linus flung himself into the airplane seat fuming over Sophie’s “clever” remark. _How original_ , he thought sarcastically to himself, _not like I never heard that one before._ He settled further into his seat planning to spend the whole flight feeding his righteous indignation. Hopefully the tickets Rusty bought worked out so that he was not sitting next to her. It would be fantastic if she wasn’t even in his line of sight for the entire trip. Unfortunately, he was not going to get what he hoped for.

“Excuse me, but you’re blocking my seat.” A soft and reasonable voice said. Linus really wanted to hate that voice. He did not even bother to look at her; instead, he stretched his legs and pulled out an iPod from his jacket’s pocket. He put one of the earbugs in his ear and then began fiddling with the play lists. 

Sophie stood there in the aisle waiting for him to acknowledge her presence while trying not to cause too much of a traffic jam. Linus had to admire her patience as well as her tenacity. He did not think he could last as long as she did with people shoving rudely past her. 

“Are you ever going to move?” She finally asked, and to Linus’s further annoyance, she did not sound impatient or irritated by his childish antics. Linus’s response was to pretend that he had fallen asleep.

He could feel her staring at him for a couple of minutes, and then it seemed that she had reached the end of her patience. He heard her let out a groan before mumbling;

“You are so immature.” 

Smiling to himself in triumph, Linus cracked his eyes open just in time to see her denim clad derrière pass before his very face. She hadn’t gone on and tried to trade seats with someone else like Linus thought she would – after all that is what he would have done – instead, she had actually climbed over his legs to reach her seat. He was flabbergasted that she was so determined to sit next to him despite his rudeness.

An enticing smell of lavender mixed with vanilla reached his nose as Sophie plopped herself down in the window seat next to him. She then pulled a fat over stuff wallet out of her jacket pocket and began to riffle through the money it contained. After taking a quick inventory, she began to pull out bills at random and pocket them. 

It soon became clear to Linus that her thievery was not as random as he had first thought. There had been quite a few hundred-dollar bills in the wallet and Linus noticed that she carefully avoided taking those; she also avoided taking any ones. Instead, she liberally removed a few twenties, tens, fives, and a couple of fifties she had found. She did not, however, take anymore than two or three of each bill. When she was finished, she caught the passing flight attendant’s attention.

“Excuse me Sir,” she said managing to sound concern and honest. “I found this in laying in the aisle as I was boarding, I think someone dropped it.” She told the good-looking flight attendant, even going so far as to bat her eyelashes at him.

“Why thank you Miss,” he responded flashing what he thought was a flirty smile. It made Linus sick to see it. “I’ll be sure this finds its way back to whoever is missing it.” He continued taking the wallet from her. 

He stuck around a bit longer, clearly trying to chat her up. Sophie made a few polite and demure responses to some of the things he said. As the steward grew bolder in his pursuit of her, Sophie managed to shake him by subtly leaning towards Linus and including him in their conversation. Linus played his part by making a few curt responses and allowing his real annoyance with her to show. After one particularly sharp statement, Sophie began to pout then turned towards Linus completely ignoring the steward.

“But sweetie,” she said with a pretty little pout, “you can’t honestly be mad at me for telling Jon here about the wallet I found, can you?”

By the now, the steward had left them to there ‘lovers quarrel’ apparently convinced that Sophie was nothing more than a helpless flirt. She kept up pretenses for a few more minutes until she was certain that Jon the steward had forgotten about them then shifted away from Linus and leaned back in her seat.

She was sitting there her head leaning on the headrest for a few seconds before she began to chuckle. She turned her head to look out the window in order to hide her look of pure amusement and satisfaction with the con she had just pulled. They sat in silence, Linus torn between admiration and annoyance and Sophie curiously regarding the tarmac of the runway as the plane began to take off.

“That was an unnecessary risk.” Linus finally snapped at her. He had decided that he was going to be angry with her for having the guts to pull of a theft when she had no easy – or sensible – escape route.

“Hey, that guy had been unnecessarily rough shoving past me earlier, he deserved it.” She said in her defense.

“What if he puts two and two together?” Linus hissed. Sophie regarded him for a moment, her hazel eyes hooded, giving her the look of a cat with a secret. 

“Trust me he won’t,” she finally answered before returning her attention back to the window. That seemed to be the end of the conversation.

He sat there impatiently waiting for the seatbelt light to go off so that he could go and find Rusty. He desperately needed to talk to someone about what she had done, more importantly he needed advice on how to deal with it.

**_****~~~~~****_ **

Much to Sophie’s amusement, as soon as the seatbelt light stopped flashing Linus was out of his chair. _Uh, I could have sworn that I remembered to put on deodorant this morning,_ Sophie thought to herself trying her best to stifle her giggles. She found it comical that Linus was so worried about her getting caught for nicking the wallet then stealing some money. She was not worried. Even if the man was smart enough to realize that, he lost his wallet when he was jostling his way past her, Sophie could easily claim that she found the wallet long after she had claimed her seat. Then if he was smart enough to actually count the money in his wallet the first thing he would check for is missing hundreds and ones. 

Everyone expected a thief to go after the big bills first that is why Sophie never took more than a fifty-dollar bill and she only took fifties if they had a lot of them. As for not taking the ones, well usually most people knew exactly how many ones they had. Whereas with fives, tens, and twenties, people generally only knew the total they had, not how many it took to make the total. That and it was easy for them to come up with a reason for why the money was missing from their wallets, other than having been stolen. People spent fives, tens, and twenties with such regularity that they often were not surprised to see that they had a few less than they expected. Usually they blamed themselves for over spending before they think of blaming someone else.

Sophie knew she was not going to be caught, she grew up pickpocket the citizens and tourists of New York City after all.

It was with that comforting thought that she began to drift off into a doze.

**_****~~~~~****_ **

Linus returned to his seat to find that Sophie had fallen asleep. He sat down and quietly pulled a book out of his bag. Linus was determined to forget about Sophie and the wallet incident, as well as Rusty’s lack of concern, in favor of a murder mystery. He had only managed to read five pages or so, when Sophie’s head rolled over and came to rest upon his shoulder. Linus froze, furiously contemplating whether he should leave her head there or try to move it for her. A soft and content sigh from Sophie made up his mind for him; he would leave her head where it was. _Besides,_ he told himself, _it is somewhat nice…not that I would ever want this to happen again!_

A few hours later Linus had finished his murder mystery and was beginning to think about sleeping. Sophie’s head had remained on his shoulder and in fact, she had managed to curl her legs up underneath her and snuggle closer to Linus. She now had one arm tucked in his and he could feel the gentle rise and fall of her chest with each breath she took.

He had just laid his head back and closed his eyes when a quiet yawn and the sound of movement herald Sophie’s return to wakefulness. Linus was surprised by how cold the right side of his body felt the minute she had moved away from him.

“Sorry,” she said quietly around another yawn. “Sorry for”—

“If you’re about to apologize for what happened back at the gate, forget about it.” Linus said interrupting her in what he thought was a suave and mysterious manner.

“Uhm, I was going to apologize for drooling on you,” she responded with some cheek, “but I guess I could apologize for that to.”

Linus was very grateful that his eyes were closed. That way he avoided having to see her amusement at the sight of his flaming cheeks. An awkward silence fell between them, giving Linus a chance to get control over his embarrassment.

“So you’re Bobby Caldwall’s son.”

“Yup,” he answered still not bothering to open his eyes. “If you want a job with him you can just forget it, I won’t help you there.”

Sophie’s response to that was to laugh; a nice big belly laugh and Linus snapped his eyes open in surprise. He watched Sophie as she laughed; her head flung back, with a rosy flush on her cheeks. Linus could not help but think that she looked really pretty when she laughed.

“Sorry,” she finally said after regaining control of herself. Although her voice was steady, her eyes were still dancing with mirth making them seem greener than usual. “It’s just that Bobby already offered me about five different jobs and I turned him down flat each time. I found what you said a little ironic.”

“Why did you turn him down?”

“I was trying to go legit of all things.” She answered wrinkling her nose at him in an expression that Linus immediately thought was adorable.

“How’d that go?” He managed to ask with a straight face.

“Just smashing.” She said in a fairly good English accent.

They spent the rest of the flight to Amsterdam on somewhat agreeable terms. Though if anyone out right asked Linus what he thought of her he would have told them that although Sophie was cute, she was annoying as hell. If anyone had told him that he liked her, he would have stammered out a fierce denial.


	7. Chapter 7

They arrived in Amsterdam without any incident much to Linus’s surprise and Sophie’s pleasure, she knew she was not going to be caught for nicking that wallet. She gave Linus a rather smug smile as they cleared the airport security but decided to save the ‘I told you so’ for later. Besides her smile pretty much said it all. 

Rusty had arranged for them to stay at the same hotel the crew had had the last time they were in Amsterdam, which meant he had booked on huge hotel room to be used as a headquarters. If the living arrangement was unsuitable to anyone, they were expected to provide for themselves. Judging by the conversation in the taxies, on the drive to the hotel, most if not all of the original crew had already arranged their own private crash pads. Although Sophie got the feeling that, the Malloy boys were planning to stick with Rusty. 

First order of business, however, was to go see Rusty’s girl – Isabel – whoever she may be. Rusty was certain that this Isabel would have information on Toulour that they would need. Sophie was waiting to be impressed.

The taxies pulled up to what looked like an abandoned restaurant in one of Amsterdam’s red-light districts. Ironically, enough its décor was straight out of the movie _Goodfellas_ and Sophie bit her lip to keep from laughing aloud. Sitting at a table in the middle of the restaurant was a woman with brown hair of middling length, wearing a tight black pinstripe suit with an a-line skirt and mauve blouse. She looked like a mobster from old and Sophie found herself recalling memories of her uncle meeting with people in such a setting. _Well, I’ll say one thing for her she has good taste,_ Sophie admitted grudgingly to herself.

“Isabel,” Rusty greeted her warmly going up to clasp her in a very welcoming embrace. “Everyone I’m sure you remember Isabel Lahiri from the last time we were in town.” Everyone nodded there consent except for Sophie, who upon hearing the woman’s last name was now staring at her fixedly. 

“Izzy this here is Miss. Renard,” Rusty said introducing Sophie, “she’s our”—

“Sophie!” Isabel interrupted Rusty then bypassed him to give Sophie a crushing embrace. “It’s been so long, why the last time I had officially saw you was at my graduation from University.”

“Izzy, it’s nice to see you again cousin but you’re kind of crowding me here.” Sophie rasped as Isabel continued to crush the air out of her. Sophie had forgotten how strong Isabel could be, she usually looked so feminine and delicate that many assumed that she was just some fragile creature. _Hah, not bloody likely, not when her father is Gaspar LeMarc one of the greatest thieves in the world,_ Sophie thought to herself rubbing her neck after Isabel had released her.

“Sorry Sophie, how’s Aunt Adèle?”

“Still alive as far as I know, though I’m willing to bet she’s not that sober.”

“Sophie, what a thing to say and about your own mother too,” Isabel chastised her with a twinkle in her gray eyes. “How your mother and mine own ever got along as sisters I’ll never know.”

“It’s one of life’s great mysteries.”

“Wait a minute here,” Danny interrupted the brewing family reunion. “You two are cousins?” They both nodded and Danny turned to look at Rusty.

“Gee, it really is a small world after all.”

**_****~~~~~****_ **

They ended up going back to Isabel’s place, Danny, Rusty, Sophie, and Linus. The others although invited to come along had opted to get a full nights rest, they trusted Danny and Rusty to tell them what they needed to know. So far their conference had proved… depressingly unproductive. 

“Izzy are you sure that’s all Toulour has been doing lately?” Rusty asked for the fifth time sounding completely frustrated. 

Sophie could not blame him, the look in his eyes said they were stuck and the answering look in Danny’s eyes was that they couldn’t be stuck, ever. The crew was caught in a difficult situation, and Danny was not about to stop pressuring them, not that anyone blamed him they all wanted Tess back. Honestly, Sophie was astonished by how important Tess was to every single member of the crew. She never really knew such loyalty, sure there was loyalty to the mob, but anyone could have been stabbed anyone in the back at any time and still be considered a loyal member of the mob. This kind of loyalty was all too new to Sophie and she had been the most sheltered of all the children of the Weasties. Adèle had hoped that Sophie would lead a normal life, despite everything. Unfortunately, she had not considered what Sophie wanted for herself.

“I’m positive Robert; Toulour has been acting like a model citizen.” Isabel told him, and Sophie noticed how she was the only one to use his proper name. The first time she had heard her cousin refer to Rusty as ‘Robert’ she did not know who Isabel was talking about until Linus had nudged her and motioned towards Rusty. By now, Sophie was use to her cousin’s quirk. 

She guessed that everyone else was use to the idea of Isabel and Sophie being cousins; at least they had stopped staring at them.

“It just doesn’t make any sense,” Linus interjected. “Why would he act like a law-abiding, god-fearing schmuck only to turn around and steal Tess?” Rusty’s answer was to shake his head, Danny did not respond at all, and Isabel just looked apologetic. 

Sophie watched them for a moment certain that the answer would come to them but after a while when no one made the connection Sophie couldn’t help but snort and it sounded disdainful. Not that she intended that but the answer was obvious to her and she was surprised that Danny Ocean, Rusty Ryan, and Linus Caldwell let alone her cousin Isabel Lahiri the daughter of Gaspar LeMark could not arrive at the answer.

They all turned to stare at her and embarrassed by the intensity of their gaze she quickly explained what was so obvious to her.

“It makes perfect sense, when you look at it in the right way.” 

“What way would that be Soph?” Isabel asked with a frigidness to her voice. Sophie winced; _all right, I deserved that for being insensitive._ To rub it in Izzy had used one of Sophie’s particularly detested childhood nicknames.

“Well whenever the mob had something big on the boil I know that Jimmy use to make nice with everyone in the neighborhood, especially the cops. Usually he would be a little bit more lineate when it came to collecting the protection money and he’d order all of his thugs not to break any bones or necks until whatever he had planed was done. He would also increase the bribe for all of the cops he was currently bankrolling. They would know Jimmy was up to something but they didn’t know what.”

“So it makes since that this Night-Fox guy is planning to kidnap Tess he would take the time to remain under the radar. I’m surprised you didn’t think of this Bell,” Sophie told her cousin with a frigidness of her own and returned the favor of using a hated nickname. “After all before Gaspar would steal something big he always made a point of sweetening up Aunt Esmé. Remember the family trip to Rome occurred right before he stole that book from the Vatican.” 

They stared at each other with their eyes locked until the unexpected sound of laughter distracted them from their squabble. Everyone turned to see Danny laughing and the two cousins were not the only ones surprised by it. Granted his laughter was close to hysterics but that was a minor point.

“My god, they really are cousins.” He finally offered as an explanation for his amusement.

“Danny..?” Rusty asked sounding concern. Danny only looked at him.

“Are you sure?” Rusty persisted.

“Rusty,” that was all Danny had to say to convince his partner. 

“Sophie what would you suggest to figure out what is going on?” Danny asked her pointedly ignoring the concern look that lingered on Rusty’s face. 

“Well Jimmy always had a few people he could trust to carry out his schemes or someone that he used to pull the proper victims into his trap. Therefore, you have to find someone that Toulour would use to get your attention and pump him for information.” To her surprise Linus groaned at that suggestion.

“Matsui.” He declared putting his head in his hands.


	8. Chapter 8

After Linus’s rather painful declaration, Danny and Rusty merely looked at each other before getting up from the table; a gesture that Linus was not happy to see. He had protested but the others were relentless. Isabel took the men’s sudden desire to leave in stride, and taking her cue from the men and her cousin Sophie stood up to leave. Only to have Danny tell her – in no few words – that her presence would be unnecessary. Sophie sat back down in a heap.

“Stay with me Sophie, we’ll have dinner.” Isabel offered and Sophie rather gracelessly accepted. The boys left then while Isabel riffled through her refrigerator looking for something to make. The men left with Isabel half buried in the fridge and Sophie sulking at the table.

“What do you want to eat Sophie?” Isabel asked after the silence had stretched on long enough.

“Who is this Matsui character that Linus is so upset about?” Sophie asked ignoring Isabel’s question. 

“He knows about all the jobs in Amsterdam. If you want one you go to him.”

“Ah. I’m surprised you haven’t put him permanently behind bars yet.”

“It’s useful to have him free.” Izzy admitted browning up some ground beef. Sophie had a pretty good guess about what her cousin had decided to make.

“Why did Linus react like that?”

“Apparently last time Matsui thought it would be funny to pull a lost in translation on Linus. He didn’t take it too well.” 

“Huh, I get the feeling that he doesn’t enjoy being teased in general.” Sophie said casually getting up and taking over stirring the noodles Isabel had set to boil. Isabel stared at her younger cousin, regarding her with an all too knowing look in her eyes. Something was up she could sense it. 

“What are you playing at Sophia?”

“I’m not playing anything Isabel.” She responded a little too quickly and sounded too aggravated, causing Isabel to raise an eyebrow. 

They cooked in silence for some time after that out burst. Eventually Isabel shooed Sophie away from the stove and directed her to set the table. That didn’t take her too long so Sophie decided to rummage through the fridge and try to put together a salad.

“Sophie,” Isabel began after a few minutes of the prolonged silence, “have you found yourself a man yet?”

“Oh for God’s sake!” Sophie exploded slamming the refrigerator door shut and turning on her cousin, a head of lettuce clutched in one fist and a bag of carrots in the other. 

“What is it with the women of this family and their obsession with my love life?” She demanded not expecting an answer. She was, however, insulted when Isabel began to laugh. Sophie folded her arms over her chest and scowled at the other woman, she had completely forgotten about the vegetables she still held hostage.

“Come now Sophia, don’t sulk all night.” Isabel implored her cousin, taking the poor abused lettuce and carrots out of her hands. 

“Robert promised me that he and the others well leave us alone for the night.” Isabel informed her with a promise in her voice, as she turned back to the stove. “I’m sure you’re just dying to hear all the gossip.” She added with a wink over her shoulder.

“I would rather be with them to meet this Matsui fellow.” Sophie responded trying to hold on to her anger.

“Matsui will probably offer them a job that they’ll have to take and they we will learn what it is Toulour really wants from Danny. That’s all that will happen.”

“Well that’s convoluted.”

“That’s half the fun. Dinner’s ready.”

Sophie could not argue with that logic and did not even bother to try. She and Isabel sat down for dinner and spent a profitable meal gossiping about what they had been doing in the ten odd years since they last saw each other. Well Sophie spent the meal listening to Isabel talk about her relationship with Rusty as well as her renewed acquaintance with her father. It was the mention of Isabel’s father that got Sophie thinking.

“Isn’t this Toulour fellow Gaspar’s old protégé?”

“You were father’s first protégé Soph.” Isabel teased.

“Izzy.” She reprimanded her cousin even as she gathered the dishes to clean them.

“Yes, why?”

“Why start kidnapping? Uncle never condoned that.” She pressed while she managed to get her arms soapy up to their elbows.

“It takes a certain kind of person who is willing to kidnap another. Judging by the way Robert described how Toulour took Tess; I can only guess that Toulour thinks of her as some kind of possession.” 

“That’s sick.” Sophie declared, and Isabel merely nodded in agreement.

“Well I’ve managed to monopolize the conversation, why don’t you tell me what’s new with you Soph. Exactly why haven’t you managed to find a man yet?”

“I haven’t found one who can tame me Izzy, or one that I’m willing to change for until,” Sophie stopped talking abruptly realizing that she might have said more than she wanted to. That was the problem of having busy hands and a mind clouded with wine.

“Until?” Isabel pressed and Sophie sighed, she had opened the bag and she might as well let the cat out. She was shocked when Izzy actually squealed in delight at Sophie’s confession. They spent the rest of the night drinking wine and discussing the many virtues that came with having a man or in Sophie’s case some delectable eye-candy. 

It was a giggle fest, something she had not indulged in since she was a pre-adolescent girl. As she drifted off to sleep, sharing her cousin’s queen sized bed, and with a head muddled with wine Sophie could not shake the feeling that someone had been spying on them.

**_****~~~~~****_ **

She woke up in the morning on a couch in an unfamiliar room; faintly she could hear the sound of men trying to whisper. Groaning she sat up trying to rub the stiffness out of her neck. She grunted at the faint pain in her head, a hangover from the wine she had indulged in the night before. Looking around with sleep still in her eyes, she found herself the center of attention for Frank, Livingston, and Basher. Even though her eyes were refusing to focus properly in the faint light from the windows, she could still detect the smirk on Basher’s face. 

“How did I get here?” She asked yawning and wincing slightly in pain.

“Danny brought you back here a few hours ago. Isabel needed to go to work and since Rusty is crashing at her place, she did not think you would want to wake up next to him.” Basher explained.

“Oh,” Sophie said through another yawn and attempted to rub the sleep out of her eyes. She had no idea how Isabel managed to be awake and ready for work, she was still half-dead. She stood up and walked over to where the three men were standing not at all self-conscious about having slept in the clothes she traveled in.

“What’s all this,” she asked gesturing towards the computer screen ignoring the glare Livingston directed at her.

“Digital schematics for the job Matsui gave us.” Livingston answered reluctantly.

“Humph, Isabel was right.” Sophie murmured to herself yawning once more.

“Here luv have some coffee,” Basher offered handing her his half-empty coffee mug. 

“Thanks,” she said reaching out to grab it with one hand and running the other through her mattered hair. _Urgh I defiantly need a shower,_ Sophie thought to herself with some disgust. She was about to wrap both of her hands around the coffee mug when Frank suddenly reached out and grabbed a hold of her right hand.

“Who does your nails?” Frank asked, staring at Sophie with an intensity that was downright nerve racking.

“Pardon?” Sophie asked her sleep-clogged – and hung-over – mind making it hard for her to process what was going on.

“Where do you get your nails done? Ya known what spa do you go to and who is the beautician you see?”

“Oh, I do them myself.”

“You’re able to produce a manicure of such caliber without the skills of a licensed and professional beautician? Now that’s just criminal.” Frank declared shaking his head before bringing her still captured hand closer to his face so he could examine her nails better. Sophie stared at the man for a moment before looking around at the others.

“Manicures are kind of Frank’s thang.” Basher explained in response to Sophie’s expression.

“Oh.”

“What do you use to moisturize?” Frank persisted, now caressing the back of her hand with his thumb. “Your skin is so soft.”

“Uhm just some baby oil when I get out of the shower.” Sophie answered a little uncertain about how she should react to all of this. She was torn between wanting to laugh or be thoroughly sketched out.

“Baby oil, really? Why I never thought of that but it makes sense”—

“Frank, please can we focus?” Livingston interrupted turning a way from the computer monitors for the first time since this bizarre conversation began. 

“Sure, sure.”

“So what exactly are we stealing?” Sophie asked trying to steer the conversation away from her personal hygiene.

“A famous portrait. That’s right up your ally isn’t it luv.” Basher said, mirth sparkling in his eyes.

“I guess so. Which one are we stealing?”

“A Rembrandt,” Frank told her and Sophie’s eyes light up with the chance to get a hold of another Rembrandt. _Perhaps Danny will let my friend from the Met take a look at it,_ she thought already planning to pay him to make two copies, one for her to sell, and one for her private collection.

“His _Philosopher in Meditation_ to be exact.” Livingston corrected. _I defiantly need a copy for my collection,_ she thought with glee.

“I didn’t know that was in Amsterdam.” She said nonchalantly, trying to hide her excitement. Basher saw right through it and gave her a conspiratorial wink. He was about to say something but was cut off by an unexpected outburst from Livingston.

“Damn the Dutch and their obsession with security!” The computer geek declared with such heat that Sophie was taken aback. He even went so far as to slam his fist on the unforgiving coffee table.

“Ow!”

“Do us a favor luv, go shower up while Frank and I play nurse for Livingston.”


	9. Chapter 9

The next few days were spent in preparation for the job Matsui wanted the team to pull. For the most part Sophie was kept out of the loop, she did not quite understand why. Even tired old Sal had more of a role in the upcoming heist than Sophie. She was rankled by their deliberate exclusion, especially since she had specialized in stealing precious works of art. The opportunity to steal a Rembrandt, was a once in a lifetime opportunity for most professional thieves. Sophie had already had that honor twice before and she would have loved to add a third to her collection. She knew that Uncle Gaspar would have been extremely proud of her. Perhaps her eagerness to steal the piece was the reason why Danny was excluding her. Sophie could understand that, an eager thief could be a liability. Still if that was the case, Sophie was insulted. After all this was not her first heist. This uncertainty gnawing at her, she decided that the best way to figure out what was going on was to ask someone and the only person she was comfortable with enough to expect the truth was Sal. 

It took some work but eventually she managed to corner him after a planning session, when nearly everyone had left. Sal saw her coming and he did not seem to be in a hurry to leave so Sophie figured that he knew what she wanted. In fact, his first words to her proved it.

“Now don’t go chewing my ear of with righteous indignation girl, I know you’re upset.”

“Good, then please explain to me why I’m being treated like a shumck.”

“Okay,” he sighed in resignation, “here’s the deal kid. Chances are we won’t even see this Rembrandt.”

“What do you mean, were planning on stealing it aren’t we?”

“Yes, but the last time we had this song and dance with Toulour, he had beaten us to the punch.”

“So we’re just going through the motions?” Sophie was dumbfounded she could not believe that Danny would have the patience to play along with the French bastard’s games especially since Toulour had Tess. 

“Oh, we’ll make it worth our while kid, there’s other things than just a Rembrandt in this guys personal collection. Livingston insisted; he spent all that time trying to crack the security system he does not want it to be for nothing.”

“Okay that all makes sense, but why keep me out of it?”

“Everyone knows how excited you were to get a hold of that Rembrandt, they didn’t want you to get your hopes up and then be disappointed.”

“You know you could have just told me that in the first place.” She pointed out to him, speaking through clenched teeth. 

“I suppose we could have,” Sal answered and Sophie could just hear the words he was not going to say _…but where’s the fun in that._

“Con men!” She exclaimed throwing her hands up in the air, “Everything is a game to you.” Sal’s only response was to shrug.

Knowing that this was all an attempt to spare her feelings did not make Sophie feel any better about the situation. Yet, on the bright side she had been given free reign to explore Amsterdam’s red light district. In fact, she could do pretty much whatever she liked just as long as she stayed out of trouble. She took full advantage of it. The only down side was that she could not spend as much time with Izzy as she would have liked. Now that the team was working on the job, no one could really have any direct or constant contact with Isabel, especially since she worked with the police. 

Some days Sophie wondered how Rusty was holding up, forced to be separated from Izzy. Then she figured that the couple was probably used to it by now. After all Izzy had admitted that she refused to give up her job and Rusty was not about to abandon the projects he had back in the States. A bi-continental relationship must have accustomed them both to long stretches of time without each other’s company. Sophie had to give them credit; she certainly would not want that in a relationship. 

Most days she was too busy worrying about Danny and how he was holding up. He soldiered on with everything in his normal manner. Or at least in what Sophie assumed was his normal manner; bantering with the guys and keeping them on track. He and Rusty were quite the team and the crew they had following them was remarkably loyal. Sophie found herself wishing that she could be more than a temporary member of the ultimate boy's club.

**_****~~~~~****_ **

Linus entered the hotel room knowing that he would have to be the bearing of bad news and convinced that he was going to break it to the guys the wrong way. Fortunately or unfortunately (depending on your perspective) Linus's facial expressions were not as controlled as he liked to think they were and it took just one look for both Danny and Rusty to figure out something was wrong.

"We're stuck," Rusty said by way of greeting returning back to the buttermilk pancakes he had been eating.

"We're not stuck; we've just come across a little hitch." Linus quickly explained, trying not to let his nerves get the better of him.

"What is the problem Linus?" Danny asked looking at the young Caldwell.

"Well it looks like we are going to want to have someone on the inside," Linus began.

"Why? Matsui gave us the security code," Rusty began than Danny cut him off.

"Unless" –

"The code he gave us was an old one."

"It's not," Linus told them. "The system just happens to generate a new code based of the original one every 24 hours. Livingston and Basher both tried predicting the possible outcomes and the chance on discovering the correct one and not alerting the police…" Linus let them come to their own conclusions.

"Should we let Roman take a look at it?"

"Livingston already called him."

"And he said..?" Danny pushed.

"That it would be cheaper and less of a headache for us to have an inside man," Linus answered. "He also said that it would be a better use of his time and our money to leave him alone to work on what we already have for him."

"Makes sense," Danny conceded.

"He is worth the money."

"True but let's not waste his gifts," Danny told Rusty.

"Fair enough."

"So, we need a grease man."

"Yen," Linus supplied.

"Maybe, but then we'd have to send in two people," Danny pointed out. "Plus this mark is a curator of an art museum and he runs his home as his own personal gallery so whoever we send in their needs to know a little something about art."

"Other than stealing it," Rusty added.

"Well Sal knows art," Linus told them, "it wouldn't be hard to pass him off as a rich European looking to buy. Also the mark is going to be disarmed dealing with an old man."  
"Good point and good idea."

"Yeah, but" –

"An even better idea," Danny began.

"Sophie," Rusty finished.

"Sophie? Well I guess she does know a little something about art," Linus conceded. "But is she really the best choice?"

"She's the perfect choice," Rusty exclaimed. "Think about it Linus, Sophie knows plenty about art and Van Tousle will defiantly be disarmed by her."

"That goes without saying, jut think of the effect those big green eyes will have on Van Tousle." Danny said looking at Rusty.

"Oh, that goes without saying. Okay, that's settled," Rusty said clapping his hands.

"Good job Linus, you found us a grease woman."

"Wait, what?!" Linus practically shouted after the two men as they left to find Sophie.


	10. Chapter 10

Willem Van Tousle spoke with a very thick Dutch accent despite the higher education he claimed; an education that had included extensive lessons in French, English, Classic Latin and a wide assortment of other languages, at least according Van Tousle. Sophie had heard a lot about the world according to Van Tousle in his thick sometimes incoherent Dutch accent these past few days. Truth be told she was getting rather sick of it. Although Willem believed that she loved every moment spent in his company. To think Linus had doubted her abilities.

When Danny and Rusty had first approached her with a part in this job Sophie had jumped at the chance. Then they explained what it was they wanted her to do and Sophie still jumped at the chance. But that was before she met Van Tousle. Thankfully the guys had given her a time frame.

"Seduce Van Tousle in four days," had been Danny's exact words.

That was the goal, to convince the man that he was in love with her (or at least in lust with her) so that he would take her back to his place for the night. Then she was to give him a light sedative and disarm the alarm. Although Van Tousle had a sophisticated alarm system installed it wasn't so sophisticated that Livingston couldn't find its weakness. He had created a virus and all Sophie had to do was download it on any computer that was connected to Van Tousle's home network. Sophie could manage that much.

Her strategy for seducing Van Tousle was simple enough. She had entered Van Tousle's home gallery dressed as a chic (and wealthy) modern French heiress. Sophie felt a little uncomfortable in her expensive getup. The black pencil skirt was too tight, nothing at all like the worn Levi's Sophie preferred to wear, and she felt absolutely ridiculous in the burgundy silk blouse she was wearing. She wished with all her might that she could have gotten away with a simple t-shirt instead of this fussy blouse. Rusty had insisted that she wear black stiletto boots with black patterned stockings. He also insisted that she wear jewelry, lots of expensive jewelry. It was at that that Sophie drew the line.

"Hold on a minute Blondie," she had snapped at him and Danny chuckled at Rusty's expression. "I've put up with your ridiculous notions of fashion long enough and I've already shelled out more of my money on these clothes than I originally wanted to."

"What are you saying, Sophie?"

"I'm saying that my own jewelry will do just fine."

Rusty did not believe her at first until he saw her jewelry, and then he had to concede that it would do just fine.

Therefore, wearing her own mother's heirloom jewelry (the few pieces Adéle did not pawn for drug money) Sophie entered Van Tousle's life. Even Rusty had to admit that the simple jade jewelry had quite the stunning effect. The green gemstones certainly brought out the color of Sophie's eyes. After entering the gallery and seeing the effect her appearance had on the poor Dutch art aficionado, even Sophie had to admit that she cut a very fine figure. Moreover, that Rusty's sense of fashion did not always tender towards that of a male prostitute, at least when it was tempered by Danny's.

Needless to say, Van Tousle took an interest in Sophie immediately. Sophie was surprised by how easy it had been for her to ensnare him. A lifetime of watching her mother at her profession had taught young Sophie a great deal. By the end of three hours exclaiming over Van Tousle's private collection he was begging her to call him Willem and she, demurely with down cast eyes had given him permission to call her Geneviève. At the end of another two hours Willem was insisting that she have dinner with him. She played hard to get for a while but then eventually she gave in, allowing him to think that he had talked her into it.

For dinner he took her to some hodey-todey restaurant, where Sophie felt that one needed to be not only a complete snob but also a member of some exclusive club just to get a table. But as Geneviève, she acted as if she had expected nothing less and would have been insulted if they had gone anywhere else. Sophie suffered through the dinner but none of her suffering showed on her face. Willem was convinced that she was just as smitten by him as he had been by her. At the end of the night, she had left him to his rest playfully rejecting all of his more amorous advances. She agreed to meet him the next day for a late lunch. Willem had insisted on giving her money to pay her taxi fee.

When she reached the hotel that night she had ignored Ocean and everyone else's questions, only briefly saying that everything was on track. She then went into the room she shared with Sal and Reuben, locked herself in the bathroom and began to rid herself of her ridiculous clothes. She turned on the water and allowed it to run until it was steaming. She plugged it and sprinkled it with some bath oil before stepping into the tub.

Sophie soaked for a minute then grabbed a wash cloth and began to scrub herself vigorously. She felt god awful about the whole situation. She had no problem conning people out of their possessions, they were just things after all, easily gotten and just as easily forgotten. But here she was making that poor man believe that she actually felt something for him, she was conning him out of his emotions a very part of himself. That could not be so easily forgotten or forgiven. It would be an entirely different matter if, like her mother, Sophie had been paid by Van Tousle to do what she was doing. Not by much, but it would have made her feel a little bit better about herself.

Instead, she was sitting in a tub in some Amsterdam hotel fighting the urge to either scream or cry. There she was faced with a moral issue, one that she had sworn long ago never to get embroiled in. That was one of the reasons she had taken up thievery in the first place, her options growing up were to either become a thief or a prostitute like her mother. Sophie had always wondered how Adéle managed to do what she did, and now she was beginning to understand why for so much of her childhood her mother had been stoned out of her mind. Finally, as she scrubbed her skin raw in the privacy of the bathroom Sophie began to cry.

**_****~~~~~****_ **

Linus was impressed with how well Sophie was holding up. He never really doubted that she could do what they were asking of her, he just never thought that she would do it. Linus did not know if that elevated his opinion of diminished it. He did not really see much of Sophie while she was trying to woo Van Tousle. Actually no one really saw her, other than Sal and Reuben, who both reported that everything was going smoothly.

Linus hoped everything was going smoothly; for tonight was the night that Sophie was supposed to get them into Van Tousle's house. _Things had better been going smoothly otherwise this was going to be a bust,_ Linus thought as he waited in the back alley with Frank, Rusty, and Danny the only ones besides Sophie to enter the marks home. It seemed like they had been waiting all night before there was an audible click from the other side of the alleyway. A door creaked open allowing some faint lighting to filter out into the night. A hand snaked out and beckoned to them.

"That's it," Danny whispered and walked casually towards the open doorway.

Linus entered the home in front of Frank and stopped short upon seeing Sophie. He did not see her before she left earlier that evening but he was certain that she did not look as bedraggled as she did now. What once must have been a neat bun was now nothing more than a jumble of curls sticking out in random directions. Her clothes although rich looking were all mused up and looked like they had been put on with some haste and little care. In one hand she negligently held a pair of wadded up panty hose and black pumps. Linus stared at her bare legs and feet with accusation. She looked like she had just gotten out of bed. He would have said something except for the fact that Frank was poking him in the back.

"Come on boy don't just stand there." Reluctantly Linus stepped aside.

"Did the virus work?" Rusty asked.

"Yes, right now Livingston is completely hacked into the system and having his way with it," Sophie replied casually. Linus winced at her choice in words; it was becoming evident to him now that Van Tousle might have had his way with Sophie.

"Good job Sophie," Danny told her resting a hand briefly on her shoulder.

"I wouldn't say that if I was you," she told him with a morose tone. Danny gave her a sharp look. Instead of answering she lead them through the downstairs turned gallery to the place where the painting was supposed to be hanging. The Rembrandt was no longer there and in its place there was an onyx fox figurine with a tape recorder. With a groan Danny reached out and pressed play.

A certain smug brass voice with a French accent emerged from the recorder:

_"Once again Mr. Ocean you have arrived in second place, a lamentable trait of yours. Even with a member of your own crew in the house I have still managed to secure the prize before you. Although, from the sounds of things she already had her hands full,"_ at that snide comment Linus turned to look at Sophie. She looked both ashamed and furious at the same time. _"Unfortunately I must inform you that this is not the only prize you have lost tonight. I do hope you associate Mr. Ryan will forgive me for my impudence, but now Mrs. Ocean will have some company."_


End file.
